Restaurant Radar: August 2021

Park Row​
After a delay due to lockdown and changes in chef personnel, multi-faceted restaurant and bar venue Park Row will open later this month. Th fully immersive DC-inspired subterranean restaurant, which is opening in Soho, takes visitors on a dark tour of Gotham city with some of the Batman comics' most famous characters, including The Penguin, Harley Quinn, The Joker, and Catwoman making an appearance. All-day dining comes by way of its Rogue’s Gallery, overseen by former Savoy Grill head chef Kim Woodward, but the big ticket dining option is The Monarch Theatre, where former Texture chef Karl O’Dell will deliver an ‘unique, immersive multi-sensorial gastronomic experience’. Expect dishes in the appearance of ‘poisonous’ mushrooms, edible jewellery and a lavish interior that will mark this venue out as one of a kind.
77 Brewer Street, London, W1F 9ZN​
parkrowlondon.co.uk​ ​

José Pizarro at the Royal Academy​
José Pizarro is opening not one but two restaurants at the Royal Academy of Arts in London's Piccadilly this month. Billed as the Spanish chef's 'first foray into central London', the two locations have been created in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts Company of Cooks, the institution's long-standing creative catering and hospitality partner. On the ground floor will be the Poster Bar by José, an informal, walk-in tapas bar with a vibe akin to Pizarro's eponymous flagship restaurant on Bermondsey Street. The casual, café-style menu will include a truffle sandwich; empanadas gallega, Galician pasty filled with tuna, confit onion and caramelized red pepper; chorizo with vino and quince; and spicy prawn fritters with lemon aïoli. Upstairs, meanwhile, in the Dorfman Senate Room will be José Pizarro at the RA, a seated restaurant with a 'grander' menu that includes jamón ibérico and presa ibérica; chipirones encebollados, baby squid cooked in caramelised, sweet onions; Mediterranean red prawns cooked with chilli and garlic; hake in salsa verde; and black ink croquetas.
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD​
royalacademy.org.uk/eating-and-drinking-senate-room-restaurant​​

Celentano's​
Robin Gill alumnus Dean Parker is launching his first solo restaurant venture this month in Glasgow with his wife Anna. Celentano’s will open within the city's Cathedral House building and is described as 'a manifestation' of the couple's own attitude to dining out. Inspired by their love of Italian food, warm hospitality and local, seasonal produce, the restaurant will take a 'conscious approach' to cooking and run a largely sustainable, low-waste kitchen. Dean’s cooking is described as 'pared back and produce driven, with a tangible respect for ingredients, seasonality and skill'. The menu at Celentano’s will comprise snacks, small plates, pastas, large plates and desserts, which are all designed to be shared amongst the table. Fresh pasta dishes include agnolotti with ricotta, cimi di rapa, artichoke and pomelo; and pappardelle with beef ragu. They will sit alongside small plates of Free Company’s turnip with muscat grapes, pine nuts and garden herbs; and larger, feasting-style dishes like whole fish, served on the bone.
28-32 Cathedral Square, Glasgow G4 0XA​
celentanosglasgow.com​​

Manthan​​
Kutir chef patron Rohit Ghai will move into more casual territory later this month with Manthan. Located in the former Lucknow 49 site on Maddox Street, the restaurant will offer an extensive selection of vegetarian dishes, with nearly half of the small plates meat-free. Dishes include ram ladoo (mong daal fritters) with mooli, yellow lentil and pomegranate; pyaz khachori (onions, mix bean sprouts and sweet and sour saunth chutney), and a Burford Brown egg curry with paratha. Ghai is once again collaborating with Abhi Sangwan front of house, who has devised a cocktail list that features drinks inspired by and named after the seven oceans of the world and the myths that surround them.
49 Maddox street, Mayfair, London W1S 2PQ​​
manthanmayfair.co.uk​​​

The Seafood Bar​
Amsterdam-based restaurant group The Seafood Bar will make its London debut this month with the opening of a fish restaurant on Soho’s Dean Street. The London Seafood Bar will be set in a 1730 Grade II listed Georgian townhouse. It will be the group’s fifth restaurant, and its first venture outside the Netherlands. Spanning two floors, the restaurant will have 190 covers and follow the same neutral colour palette of the Dutch venues with white marble fixtures throughout. The main dining room will feature an open and have a downstairs seafood bar that will pivot to a cocktail bar in the evenings. The restaurant is said to follow a ‘lekkerbek’ philosophy (what might seem simple on the outside, is complicated on the inside), with dishes on the menu to include fruits de mer platters, oysters, and a mixed grill of crustaceans and fish cooked on a plancha.
77 Dean St, London W1D 3SH​
theseafoodbar.com​​

Bibo​
Three star Spanish chef Dani García is to make his London debut later this month with his Bibo restaurant brand. Located at the recently opened Mondrian Shoreditch (formerly The Curtain), the site joins four Bibo restaurants in Spain and a further site in Doha. Dishes set to feature on the tapas menu include Bibo ‘favourites’ such as the oxtail brioche with mushroom slices, DG sauce and rocket; the Russian salad with quail eggs comprising potato, extra virgin olive oil mayo, tuna belly, fried quail eggs and garlic chips; ham croquettes; and guacamole freshly made tableside in a molcajete mortar with avocado, green peas, broken-up burrata, mint and nachos. In the space that was once home to Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster, the restaurant will hold 120 covers in total.
45 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3PT​
sbe.com/hotels/mondrian/shoreditch/dining​ ​

The Engine Room​
Former Taka chef James Harrison is to lead this Mediterranean-inspired restaurant that will open within Hexagon Classics car showroom on the Great North Road in London's Finchley this month. The Engine Rooms at Hexagon Classics will feature a 'design-led restaurant', together with a specialty wine cellar and bar and a private event space. Paul Michaels' (owner of Hexagon) vision for the restaurant is 'to create a simple, regularly changing menu that encapsulates the joy of Mediterranean dining whilst using the best of seasonal British ingredients'. Harrison's menu will have a specific focus on fish and vegetables, prepared and served from The Engine Room's open-plan kitchen. The all-day menu will be split into starters, seasonal salads, and stone-baked pizzas, alongside main courses of fish, vegetables, and meat. Dishes will include steamed Cornish hake with fennel and carrot escabeche, smoked cod roe mousse, salty fingers and shellfish oil; and salt marsh Cornish lamb rack with toasted fregola, peas, broad beans, green sauce and rosemary cooking jus.
82-92 Great N Rd, London N2 0NL​
theenginerooms.co.uk​​

Delicious Pho​
There’s little doubt as to what this Canadian-based Vietnamese food brand is aiming to serve when it opens this month in London’s Spitalfields. Delicious Pho will serve 10 variations of the eponymous noddle soup dish, using local ingredients sourced daily from Spitalfields Market but there will be other Vietnamese street food dishes on offer as well as a range of desserts and bubble teas. Founded in 2003, there are now 12 Delicious Pho restaurants across Canada with this to be the first one to open overseas.
3-6 Steward Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6FQ​

Bar La Rampa​
KOL and Casa do Frango operator MJMK will open a Cuban restaurant on the former Sweet Chick site in Fitzrovia later this month. Bar La Rampa will have a menu developed by Tātā Eatery, and a cocktail-led drinks offer put together by London-based bartender Marcis Dzelzainis. Named after Calle 23, one of the best-known streets of Havana’s Vedado area, La Rampa is described as being a celebration of Cuba’s long-standing traditions, including its cuisine. The menu will feature a number of small plates and sharing dishes that take influence from Cuba and the wider Central American region, with dishes such as the cubano sandwich, made with pork belly, ham, and raclette cheese; chorizo empanadas, foot-long pork chicharrones; and Picadillo empanadas. Bar La Rampa joins MJMK existing Cuba-inspired concept Bar Bolivar, a bar in Canary Wharf.
7-8 Market Place, Fitzrovia, London W1W 8AG​
barlarampa.com​ ​

Wilding Salisbury​
Oxford-based restaurant, wine bar and wine shop Wilding will open a second venue in Salisbury at the start of this month. The 90-cover restaurant will have an additional 50-cover terrace and is based on the concept of ‘wilding’ - the practice of regenerating overworked land to return it to nature - and a commitment to sustainable practices. Executive chef Dominique Goltinger has created a menu of dishes that will include small plates of potato gnocchi with aubergine, Westcombe ricotta and basil pesto, a range of pizzas, a Stony Street burger, and grill options such as rotisserie style herb stuffed chicken with crispy potato. Forty wines will be available by the glass and 10 on tap.
19-21 High Street, Salisbury, SP1 2AF​
wilding.wine/locations/​​

Yellowhammer​
Sam Buckley is collaborating with baker Rosie Wilkes and potter Joe Hartley to open a bakery, deli, pottery and evening pizza and wine bar in Stockport old town. The venue will supply the bread for Buckley’s ambitious flagship Where The Light Gets In (which is just up the road) and will share ‘the same commitment to supporting small, local producers and using whole ingredients’. Yellowhammer takes its name from the woodland songbird, known for its distinctive ‘a little bit of bread and no cheeeeeese’ call. Sam Buckley opened Where the Light Gets In Stockport old town in 2016 having cooked for a number of high profile chefs including Simon Rogan, Paul Kitching and Gary Rhodes.
15 Lower Hillgate, Stockport, Cheshire SK1 1JQ​
wtlgi.co​​